Dragons soar with a little help from people

Astrid (Sarah McCreanor) in a flying scene from "How to Train Your Dragon Live Spectacular," playing Jan. 17-20 at the Honda Center. PHOTO BY LISA TOMASETTI

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Fishlegs (Dexter Mayfield) rides Gronckle in a scene from the arena show "How to Train Your Dragon." PHOTO BY TODD KAPLAN

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Hiccup (Rarmian Newton) fixes the tail of Toothless, the dragon he befriends and tames. PHOTO BY JEFF BUSBY

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Hiccup (Rarmian Newton) shoots down a dragon in a scene from "How to Train Your Dragon," DreamWorks' live adaptation of its successful 2010 animated film. PHOTO BY JEFF BUSBY

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Hiccup (Rarmian Newton) gradually befriends Hiccup. His people dismiss all dragons as monsters to be feared and fought. PHOTO BY LISA TOMASETTI

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Hiccup (Riley Miner) and Astroid (Gemma Nguyen) prepare for their first dragon flight in "How to Train Your Dragon." Figuring out how to place actors on animatronic dragons and fly them around an arena was one of the show's biggest technical challenges. PHOTO BY TODD KAPLAN

In “How to Train Your Dragon,” a young Viking named Hiccup has been raised to hate and fear dragons. His people would like to exterminate the terrifying beasts. But Hiccup befriends a dragon which he names Toothless, and he discovers that the creatures aren't nearly as fearsome as they seem. They even allow people to ride on them if properly trained. PHOTO BY TODD KAPLAN

In show business, as in life, success breeds imitation. Orange County is about to see an arena-show version of "How to Train Your Dragon" (it swoops into the Honda Center on Thursday) because the 2010 DreamWorks animated film was so successful, naturally.

But it isn't always that easy. The 13 lifelike dragons that screech, lumber around, spit fire and fly throughout the massive touring production wouldn't have been possible without "Walking with Dinosaurs."

That popular arena show employed fearsome and realistic prehistoric reptiles made by Australian company Global Creatures, which brought new technologies and materials to the art of theatrical robotics and made the long-dead beasts seem thrillingly alive.

"I was really taken by the work that they did," said Bill Damaschke, co-president of production at DreamWorks Animation. "It was beautiful.

"At the time that I saw ('Walking with Dinosaurs'), we were in development for the film version of 'How to Train Your Dragon.' I talked to Jeff (Katzenberg, CEO of DreamWorks Animation) and said that if we find success, there is a group of people who do really amazing work and they could create something special and unique for us. For the size of show we envisioned, I thought they'd be perfect."

The production is huge. The largest of the dragons weighs 1.6 tons. Most require three operators: one underneath to drive the massive robotic puppet across the floor and two who operate its finer movements and sounds from a control station in the audience.

Some of the creatures fly. Others blow smoke rings. And "Dragon" contains a special effect no children's show these days seems to be without: one of the beasts has flatulence. (Don't worry, parents, it involves confetti and nothing else.)

Katzenberg green-lighted the "How to Train Your Dragon" arena project after he and other DreamWorks staff traveled to Houston about five years ago to see "Walking with Dinosaurs." "Dragon" began in Australia and made its American premiere late last June in Wilkes-Barre, Penn.

Moving the arena show from town to town and performing it up to three times a day is a massive undertaking that involves 30 semitrucks and a crew of almost 100 actors, management and crew. In many respects, though, it's old-fashioned theater. The dragons are not preprogrammed; all movements and sounds are performed live by the operators.

DRAGONS ARE FRIENDLY BUT TRICKY TO RIDE

In "How to Train Your Dragon," a young Viking named Hiccup has been raised to hate and fear dragons. His people would like to exterminate the terrifying beasts.

But Hiccup befriends a dragon he names Toothless, and he discovers that the creatures aren't nearly as fearsome as they seem. They even allow people to ride on them if properly trained.

Therein lay a challenge for the show's designers.

"The story pretty much needs Hiccup to fly at least two times on Toothless," Damaschke said. "We looked into creating the effect with puppets (playing the human characters) but concluded that no, it really needs to happen (with an actor)."

A complex flying rig was devised. "Designing something that could take (Hiccup and Toothless) all over the stage and yet be able to tour the show easily, that was a huge, huge challenge," Damaschke said. "Creating a great special effect and creating something that's easy to take down and put back up are two entirely different things."

But there's a lot more to "How to Train Your Dragon" than its realistic dragons, Damaschke said.

"The projection work for the show is sophisticated and beautiful. It helps especially during the flying sequences, where it's combined with real motion and puppetry to create a very convincing effect."

Many of the processes for creating the show seemed familiar to him, Damaschke said. "We used storyboards and computer models a lot. It was very similar to the way we make our movies."

But an arena show has one distinct advantage over a movie: It can be improved after launch.

"We've made some changes since Australia, and even since we began (the North American tour) on the East Coast," Damaschke said. "Mainly it's been a few internal cuts and a couple of pacing things."

Is there a bad seat in the house? Not really, Damaschke said.

"We use about three-quarters of the arena (for the stage). The show covers a lot of space, so you'll feel close to it wherever you're sitting."

Big-stage spectaculars with gargantuan budgets haven't always found success. Cirque du Soleil recently announced that "Iris," its $110 million "permanent" show at the Dolby Theatre in Los Angeles, would close because of disappointing ticket sales.

Damaschke said "How to Train Your Dragon" will avoid that fate.

"With family entertainment, people have to feel that they're getting a memorable experience for their money; they also respond well to something they know and already like. Name recognition is important. It's that combination of the surprising and the familiar that attracts them, which is what this show delivers."

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